


Lightning in My Veins

by Zdenka



Category: Ready For It - Taylor Swift (Music Video)
Genre: Background/Past Het Relationship, Crime for Fun and Profit, F/F, Non-Graphic Violence, Robots & Androids, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21842341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/pseuds/Zdenka
Summary: A notorious thief is out for revenge after being backstabbed by a partner in crime. When she sets out to steal a rare treasure from him, she finds much more than she was expecting.
Relationships: Female Android Character/Female Android Character
Comments: 10
Kudos: 8
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Lightning in My Veins

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Malkontent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malkontent/gifts).



> Based on [this music video](https://youtu.be/wIft-t-MQuE) (probably NSFW (for naked female android); brief graphic violence).

The first rule of double-crossing your partner in a heist is to make sure they don’t survive to get you back for it. Jason Reynault has broken that rule, and Needle is going to see that he regrets it.

She knew he was a killer, the head of a criminal organization that spanned several countries, just as he knew she was a thief. And not just any thief. The best thief. There isn’t a security system on the planet that she can’t hack into, coming for the rarest and most delicate treasures and vanishing again like a phantom. No one knows her real name, no one knows her face. Most people don’t even know she’s made of metal and wires on the inside, not human flesh. Needle likes it that way. And when his organization approached her to work together on a heist, she was flattered. She thought it would be a fun challenge.

To be fair, it was fun, right up until the moment his flyer lifted off without her, leaving her stranded on the rooftop. Then his goons shot her three times, and finally blew the bit of roof she was standing on out from under her. It was a long way down.

In retrospect, sleeping with Jason might have messed with her judgement more than she thought. He had a charming smile. He offered her expensive dinners, flowers, compliments. Murmured into her ear how beautiful she was, how pretty her eyes were. And she liked being flattered. It was something to pass the time while waiting for the pieces of the plan to come together, she thought.

She wasn’t pretty once she hit the ground. Still, a durosteel-reinforced inner skeleton has to be good for something. She’d paid enough for it, anyway.

She dragged herself out of the wreckage, limping, barely able to see through one blinking sensor in her right eye, exposed wires sparking through the gaps in her synthetic skin. But she survived; she lay low until the search moved on, found a mechanic who owed her a favor, and got herself put back together. And then she started planning her revenge.

Her eye-sensors flicker as she strides down the graffitied alley behind an old factory building that plausibly-deniably belongs to the Reynault organization. She doesn’t know exactly what Jason is keeping here, what kind of business he’s running sandwiched in between the crumbling brick and rusty pipes, but she knows he has something hot. Something good. And she’s going to steal it right out from under his nose.

That’s only stage one of her plan. She has an island. A gorgeous island of her very own, with white beaches and smooth turquoise waves. She means to retire there someday. And she’s made very, very sure that no one can track her there. As far as anyone else’s sensors and databanks are concerned, that island doesn’t exist.

If she kidnaps Jason and brings him there, no one will ever find him.

She hasn’t decided yet what she wants to do with him. Maybe ransom him back to his organization for a price that will set her up for life, and meanwhile threaten him a little to make him frightened, make him sorry he betrayed her. Maybe lie back on a balcony and make him serve her fruity drinks with little umbrellas in them, looking out over the gorgeous blue ocean and enjoying the island breeze while Jason kneels at her feet. She can keep him around until she gets tired of it. Snatching him away from his bodyguards and electronic security systems will be a tricky job, but she’s looking forward to it. But first things first.

Her sensors detect a hollow space on the other side of the wall. Needle slides away a hidden panel to reveal a glowing keypad and enters the access code. A hatch opens near ground level; she ducks into it and down a rusty ladder into an underground service tunnel. More graffiti and rusty pipes, puddles of water on the tunnel floor. Jason’s money sure isn’t going to maintain this place.

Robot spiders scuttle out of the way as she passes. Needle ignores them; they’re harmless, unless you’re very small or badly injured or unconscious. There are people living here too, robots down on their luck and in need of maintenance. And some of them are low-level guards working for Jason, keeping an eye on the approaches to his territory. The unaffiliated lurkers get out of her way, because they can tell from her energy signature that she’s carrying a lot of high-powered weaponry and other gadgets, and they know better than to mess with her. Jason’s people get out of her way too; her eye-sensors whir as she transmits the codes that tell them she belongs there. They nod respectfully to her as she walks past. She could get used to this.

She walks through one last corridor lined with black-cloaked, black-helmeted robot guards—standing frozen at attention, because she’s tricked the security system into thinking that she’s a VIP—and enters one more access code. The door slides open, and finally she’s in the nice part of the building complex. She doesn’t waste time; she’s studied the floor plans and she knows where she’s going.

When she finds the room with her objective, it’s not what she was expecting. A woman, another android, slumped on the ground in a forcefield cage. She’s also naked except for a pair of high heels. (Seriously, Jason? Seriously?)

The woman stands up, her eyes whirring, as Needle approaches, and walks towards her so that only the barrier of the forcefield separates them. She’s very beautiful.

Needle scans her with her eyebeams. There are traps, locks, required authorizations—Needle goes through and around all of them, her fingers twitching slightly as she navigates the code. She’s simply the best at this. Ah, finally she’s in. She can read the woman’s stats—that’s some impressive combat power; she wonders briefly what Jason means to use her for. Whatever it is, he won’t be able to do it. Needle hopes her theft ruins some important plans. She scans further. A model type, customized in some highly interesting ways; a serial number; a name. _Herja_.

There’s one final trap. She should have expected that Jason would have left his prize captive android bound with some sort of auto-defense program. Herja will have to fight with all her power, whether she wants to or not. Needle can disable the program, but she needs physical contact. Meaning that if Needle wants to take her out of here, she’s going to have to take her down first. That’s fine. She can do that. She reaches for the controls of the forcefield.

“You’re really going to do that?” Herja asks, her voice slightly muffled by the forcefield.

“Yeah.” Obviously.

Herja smiles slowly. “Once the forcefield is down, I won’t be able to hold back. Are you ready for it?” Armor is exuding from her body, forming over her skin like a hard shell.

Needle doesn’t bother to answer. She puts her hand to the forcefield barrier and takes it down.

When Herja raises her hands and calls lightning, bright forked electricity spinning from her like a web, Needle thinks she might have made a mistake. It’s a hell of a fight, though.

In the end, she’s only able to get close enough to disable the forced combat program by using every dirty trick she knows, distracting Herja with a robot spider, and making a steel ceiling beam fall on her with a carefully placed explosive, pinning her for a vital few seconds. And then Herja tosses the beam away like it's nothing and keeps fighting anyway; judging by her wild grin, it’s for the sheer fun of it. Her hair is crackling with static, she’s haloed with light, and she looks absolutely glorious. Fuck.

Needle fights like hell, but she’s a thief, not a combat soldier. After the fourth time Herja grows weapons from the metallic skin of her arms or legs to slash at her, after the third time being hit by Herja’s lightning, Needle has to admit: she’s not going to win this one.

Herja leaves her lying on the floor and turns to go.

“Take me with you,” Needle blurts out. Herja turns back, tilting a skeptical eyebrow at her.

“I have the codes. You don’t have to fight your way out. I know, you like fighting, and so do I, but if you take too much time, someone will hit the alarm and they’ll send something after you that you can’t defeat.” Like an entire battalion of mech infantry, maybe. “They caught you in the first place, right? I can help!”

Herja considers a moment longer, then she bends down and scoops Needle up as if she weighs nothing. That’s—it’s kind of hot.

They get out of there, between Needle’s finessing the electronic security systems and Herja smashing through walls and occasionally heads. It’s great.

Needle directs her to her getaway flyer; she may be smashed up, but she can still interface with a flyer, thank you very much. They’re soaring through the night, the city lights above them and around them. Needle knows how to evade pursuit, and she does. At last they’re out in the dark, the city left behind them and only the rare blinking lights of a tower or bridge to mark the way.

Herja glances out through the window. “You can drop me off here.”

“Here?” Needle echoes, with swelling disappointment.

“Preferably on the ground. But this is far enough.”

“But I rescued you!”

“You stole me. And now you think I’ll be grateful,” Herja says wearily, “that I’ll join your organization and fight for you, whichever one it is? I’m tired of being used for other people’s dirty work.”

“No! No, it’s—” Needle’s processors are working frantically. She has to think of something to say. But her mind is blank.

Herja puts her hand on the flyer door, as if she’s going unlatch it and jump out. With her armor, she could survive the fall, or maybe she’s counting on her limited levitation tech to get her down. She could do it, she could really jump out and vanish into the night. “Wait!” Needle says desperately. She has no idea what she’s doing, she only knows that she can’t let this woman disappear from her life. Herja turns and looks at her skeptically, as if she’s saying _This had better be good_. “I have an island,” Needle blurts out.

“An island.”

“Yes! It’s beautiful. And completely off the map networks. They won’t find us there. You should go there. With me. And plan revenge on Jason.” It took her a while, but she got up to the good part. A reason Herja should stay with her. It makes sense, right?

“You’re not with a criminal organization,” Herja says slowly. “Or a government organization.”

“No! There’s nothing like that. I’m a criminal, but there’s only me.”

“And you think you can take down Jason Reynault with only you?”

“I know I can,” Needle says confidently. “Especially if you help me. I can break into and out of anywhere, and you can beat up anyone. We’ll make him regret the day he was born. What do you say, are you in?” She looks at Herja hopefully.

Herja’s face goes through a mix of expressions. Finally, she smiles slowly. “I want to see your island,” she says. “We can talk about the rest when we get there.”

Herja seems surprised when the island really is only an island, with beaches of white sand and graceful palm trees. “You don’t have a secret robot army stashed somewhere? Or, or horrifying genetic experiments to make cute, harmless animals into monsters?”

“No!” Needle hesitates. “Unless you want some? I could get some, maybe.”

Herja looks at her. “I’m beginning to think you really don’t.”

“A robot army wouldn’t be relaxing,” Needle says huffily. “I come here to relax.”

“I see.”

Needle fidgets. “I need to go make some repairs. You smashed me up pretty good back there.”

“Sorry.”

“No, it was great!” Needle says enthusiastically. “We should do it again. Once I’ve put myself back together.” Needle activates her private network and opens up a room near hers, transmitting the location to Herja. “You can stay there. But you can go anywhere on the island you like.”

Needle is careful to set her strongest security on the flyers, the boats, and every other way off the island. Though she doesn’t think she can really keep Herja here if she wants to go. It makes her feel oddly miserable.

Needle tries to be the best hostess she can. She invites Herja to sit with her on her favorite balcony to watch the sun go down, plies her with food and drink and the best oil and components for maintenance. She even lets Herja into her treasured workshop to make whatever modifications of her own body or code she desires. Herja could already blow her to smithereens if she wanted to, she tells herself. So it doesn’t matter anyway.

And they fight, every day. Herja holds back enough that she doesn’t seriously damage her, but Needle gets in some hits too. She’s always proud of herself when she manages to do something that Herja didn’t expect.

And at night—at night, when Needle lies cradled in the recharging station, her cables entwined with the cables of her power source, she plays back the recorded memories of their fights. And then she lets some of her more speculative programs run and lets herself imagine what else they could do, when Herja has her pinned down.

Needle could just ask her if she wants to. But she doesn’t want to confuse the issue; she’s still waiting for Herja to give her answer, whether she’ll help Needle with her revenge. That has to be settled first, she tells herself. But she’s not really in a hurry. As long as Herja wants to stay here with her, Needle isn’t complaining. They can take their time.

“I’ve decided,” Herja says a week later. “I’ll join this ridiculous plan of yours and help you with your revenge—”

“Hey! It’s your revenge too.”

“—if you can beat me.”

Herja thinks Needle can’t do it. She’ll see; Needle still has a few tricks up her sleeve. “And if I lose?”

Herja hesitates a moment. “Then,” she says deliberately, “you have to do something for me.”

“What kind of—oh.”

Herja is looking her over, her gaze hot and intense. The quick burst of data she transmits contains some very intriguing images.

“Yes!” Needle says immediately. “I mean, all right. We have a deal.” Needle can see where this is gonna go. She’s pretty sure she likes it.

They head down to an open section of beach where they won’t destroy anything. The warm sand slides under Needle’s boots.

Herja’s smile of anticipation is slightly terrifying. “Are you ready for it?”

“I’m ready,” Needle flings back. She feels herself grinning. “Are you?” She spreads her fingers, activating the energy shield contained in her wrist bracers.

Herja generates her lightning, sends it out to smash into Needle, almost knocking her off her feet; her shield wavers unsteadily. Needle pours more power into the shield, barely holding it together. She sends a handful of deactivation darts at Herja, making her cut off the lightning to dodge out of the way. Fighting like this, just the two of them, she feels alive, in a way she never has before. This is going to be great.

**Author's Note:**

> Name stuff, just for fun:
> 
> Jason is named after the Greek mythology character who abandoned Medea after she helped him steal the Golden Fleece. Herja is the name of a Valkyrie. Needle seemed like a fun name for a dangerous thief character, but also because needle and Taylor. I know, bad pun.


End file.
